Win good for trust and self-belief

The All Blacks will now get ready for Argentina and South Africa safe in the knowledge they have ticked another box in the 29-9 win over Australia.

Coach Steve Hansen said he was proud of the way his side did not get overawed by the physical and feisty attitude of the Wallabies.

"I think we’ve seen the ability of us to grow and learn from what was a pretty physical game. It was a different game altogether from the last one," he said.

"Australia really turned up and threw everything they had at us and we just had to learn how to cope with that and play and score tries, which was pleasing."

Hansen said he was expecting the Australians to come back after last week’s towelling in Sydney.

"You had to expect something was coming. After last week when nothing came. They got a fair bit of criticism back home and they’re proud people, so they were going to bring something. It was just a good old hard game of footy.

"It was just a matter of us remaining focused on our game. At times we drifted off but you would expect that — this is a young side — lost 818 caps — so it will make this team go even better from that experience ... there will be a bit of trust and self-belief coming from it."

Hansen said first five-eighth Beauden Barrett had a fine game but it was not just about him piloting the side around the park.

"He wants to be the driver but there has to be a few driving instructors around him. One set of eyes can’t see everything. There has to be 15. The better we do that and the better it is for Beauden."

He said the edge in his side came down to a better skill level from the players.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika launched an attack on referee Romain Poite but in the end that was just a sideline.

His side was not good enough in the set piece and the abrasive attitude it took into the game is just hiding some real deficiencies in the Wallaby game.

Cheika thought his team responded better than last week, when it was thrashed in Sydney, but it was not clinical enough.

"The difference between us and our opponent in the match was they had four or five opportunities to score and they took them all," he said.

Cheika said Poite showed no respect to Australian captain Stephen Moore and he had raised it with World Rugby referee officials.

It was a night to remember for Israel Dagg, in the unfamiliar position of right wing.

Dagg scored his first try after just seven minutes.

The ball came back to halfback Aaron Smith from a messy lineout. Smith darted into some space and the All Blacks spread to the left.

It then came back to the right and debutant Anton Lienert-Brown made the bust to feed Dagg, who went over.

The Australians were combative but did not show a lot on attack and Dagg got his second try after 22 minutes.

The ball came slowly out into the hands of Smith but a couple of nice passes put Barrett into space.

He passed on to Dagg, who simply cut inside to score the try.

The Wallabies continued to be abrasive and got the reward of three Bernard Foley penalties in the first half.

But they were just holding the All Blacks at bay and the tries kept coming in the second half.

Julian Savea showed his power and speed to dot down six minutes into the second half and flanker Sam Cane scored the final try for his team after a break by fullback Ben Smith.

Australia never got a sniff and packed the offensive might of the Monaco military.

Best for the All Blacks was Barrett again, Lienert-Brown had a sound debut, while up front, lock Brodie Retallick was relentless and hooker Dane Coles was as busy as ever.

● A determined Argentina overcame injuries to several key players before leaving it late to claw its way to a second-ever victory over South Africa in Salta yesterday.

Replacement first five-eighth Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias kicked the winning penalty with two minutes remaining as the Pumas eked out a 26-24 triumph, after the Springboks had looked poised to rally past Argentina for the second time in eight days.

Argentina 26 (Joaquin Tuculet, Juan Manuel Leguizamon tries; Nicolas Sanchez con, 2 pen, Juan Martin Hernandez con, pen, Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias penSouth Africa 24 (Bryan Habana, Pieter-Steph Du Toit tries; Johan Goosen con, Elton Jantjies 2, Morne Steyn 2 pen).

Halftime: 13-3

 

Rugby Championship
The scores

New Zealand 29

Israel Dagg 2, Julian Savea, Sam Cane tries; Beauden Barrett 3 con, penalty

Australia  9

Bernard Foley 2, Reece Hodge pen

Halftime: 15-9

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